{"id":306299,"date":"2025-04-05T05:24:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T05:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=306299"},"modified":"2025-04-07T07:10:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T07:10:31","slug":"and-here-comes-the-online-safety-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=306299","title":{"rendered":"\u2026and here comes the Online Safety Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kit Knightly \u2013 Off-Guardian April 4, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

The UK\u2019s Online Safety Act officially came into force two weeks ago, and they have wasted no time using it.<\/p>\n

Alternative social media network Gab has already been threatened with a massive fine<\/a> for its supposed failures to \u201cpolice speech\u201d on its platform. Anecdotes are piling up, small forums and communities blocking access from the UK for fear of attracting OfCom\u2019s ire and the like.<\/p>\n

But rest assured, an OfCom spokesperson promised the Telegraph<\/a> they would \u201conly take action where it is proportionate and appropriate\u201d<\/em>. So that\u2019s alright.<\/p>\n

The Financial Times headlines<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

UK to crack down on illegal content across social media<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bland piece of dishonesty by omission, pretending to objectivity even as it hides behind language. They only specifically mention child porn and terrorism and other criminal behaviour as \u201cillegal content\u201d, but don\u2019t mention that the act is about far more than child porn and drugs.<\/p>\n

It has entire sections dedicated to \u201cfalse communication offenses\u201d<\/a> \u2013 meaning publishing material the state has deemed \u201cmisinformation\u201d, and a second section specifically and explicitly giving newspapers and media companies immunity from those offences.<\/p>\n

Nobody is talking about any of that, though, because fortunately enough Adolescence<\/em> came out at the exact same time the act came into force, and has totally steered the national conversation on this topic while flooding social media with \u201cconcerned mothers\u201d who really want the government to \u201ctake action\u201d.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right, the formerly-creeping now-galloping authoritarianism is a great thing because we need to save our children from\u2026whatever.<\/p>\n

From across the pond, Donald Trump and JD Vance are happily playing heel on this issue, with officials from their administration (allegedly) suggesting OSA impacts on free expression<\/a> might threaten a trade deal or result in more dreaded tariffs.<\/p>\n

This is all positioning, of course. It\u2019s standard stuff. Trump is against the OSA, so to millions of entirely brainwashed people, that automatically makes it A Good Thing.<\/p>\n

It also allows for editorials like this one<\/a> in the Guardian, headlining \u201cThe Guardian view on online safety: don\u2019t let Trump dictate the terms of debate\u201d. Now Keir Starmer can \u201cstand up to the bully Trump\u201d by refusing to \u201cwater down\u201d the \u201cprotections\u201d<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now Keir Starmer can \u201cstand up to the bully Trump\u201d by refusing to \u201cwater down\u201d the \u201cprotections\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The predictable charities and pundits are all \u201cappalled\u201d<\/a> at the idea of \u201cwatering down\u201d the OSA \u201cprotections\u201d, and their suggested alternative \u2013 which won\u2019t happen \u2013 is a complete social media ban for children<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve tried that gambit in Australia already, and it\u2019s not really a social media ban so much as it\u2019s an excuse to end online anonymity.<\/p>\n

How do you ban children? You can\u2019t, not without making everyone prove their age<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The \u201ccompromise\u201d option is that we don\u2019t<\/em> ban children, but then we would need to know who is and isn\u2019t a child in order to best protect them from radicalization and hate speech\u2026so everyone better prove their age.<\/p>\n

And, of course, all this needing to prove your age stuff flows neatly into a government-issued digital identity.<\/p>\n

Some people\u00a0even suggest that it should be illegal for\u00a0anyone under 16 to own a smartphone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How do you enforce that? Well, you\u2019d need to prove your age (and therefore your identity) to own a cell phone, so buh-bye pre-paid anonymous phones. (They really don\u2019t mind leaning into the \u201cOi mate, you got a license for that?<\/em>\u201d meme, apparently.)<\/p>\n

Usually I would dismiss this as one of those ridiculously extreme positions designed to make the actual goal seem more palatable, but I could actually see this one going ahead. After all, we don\u2019t want kids wandering around with access to the internet 24\/7, where they could fact-check teachers in real time for example.<\/p>\n

And because it\u2019s just rules, and they love having more rules.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s our \u201cnew normal\u201d in a nutshell, isn\u2019t it? More and more rules for rules\u2019 sake.<\/p>\n

OffGuardian will carry on warning anyone who\u2019ll listen while we can, but with the Online Safety Act out in force and taking no prisoners, who can say how long that might be?<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

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Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kit Knightly explains that the UK\u2019s Online Safety Act officially came into force two weeks ago, and they have wasted no time using it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-controlling-the-news-andor-the-free-exchange-of-ideas-and-information","category-The_Media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=306299"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306364,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306299\/revisions\/306364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=306299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=306299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=306299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}